THAILAND
Floods kill six
Floods in the south have killed at least six people and affected tens of thousands of households, authorities said yesterday. The floods, which began on Friday last week, have hit more than 70,000 homes across the provinces of Satun, Songkhla, Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, regional officials said. Six people including an 89-year-old woman and a toddler were killed in Narathiwat, province Deputy Governor Preecha Nualnoi said. Another person was still missing following days of intense rain, which sparked floodwaters that reached about 3m in height in some places, he said. Local media footage showed streets submerged by the muddy deluge and residents taking refuge on rooftops.
AUSTRALIA
Cocaine found on beaches
Police yesterday said that they were scouring beaches after mysterious packages believed to contain more than 120kg of cocaine washed up over the Christmas period. A first batch of 39 barnacle-encrusted, 1kg bricks of suspected cocaine was discovered on Friday last week near Magenta Beach, north of Sydney, police said. Since then, another 85 packages of the same size had been spotted along about 80km of the New South Wales coastline, state police said. Police urged people to report any suspicious packages, New South Wales Detective Chief Superintendent Jason Weinstein said in a statement. “Detectives and specialist police are currently combing beaches and coastlines for any outstanding packages and working behind the scenes to make sure we find and hold accountable those responsible,” said Weinstein, who is director of the state’s crime command.
CHINA
US labor reporter sanctioned
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday said it had sanctioned Kharon, a US firm founded by former US Department of the Treasury officials that provides data to companies on alleged forced labor in the Xinjiang region to help them comply with US laws. The foreign ministry said it would take “countermeasures” against Kharon and its director of investigations for providing “so-called evidence for America’s illegal sanctions related to Xinjiang.” The Los Angeles-based Kharon said it had no presence in China, so the action was “largely symbolic” and would not impact its operations or ability to service its clients. Kharon said companies depend on its forced labor data to comply with the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.
JAPAN
Fukushima ruling slashed
The Tokyo High Court on Tuesday ruled that only the operator of the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant had to pay damages to dozens of evacuees, relieving the government of responsibility. Plaintiffs criticized the ruling as belittling their suffering and the severity of the disaster. The court also slashed the amount to half of a lower court’s decision, ordering Tokyo Electric Power Co Holdings (TEPCO) to pay ￥23.5 million (US$164,882) to 44 of the 47 plaintiffs. The ruling backpedaled from an earlier decision in March 2018, when the Tokyo District Court held both the government and TEPCO accountable for the disaster, which the ruling said could have been prevented if they both took better precautionary measures, ordering both to pay ￥59 million in damages. Motomitsu Nakagawa, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said he was infuriated by the high court ruling, which he called a “copy and paste” of an earlier Supreme Court decision relieving the government of responsibility.
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
DEFENSE UPHEAVAL: Trump was also to remove the first woman to lead a military service, as well as the judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force US President Donald Trump on Friday fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he would nominate former lieutenant general Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking with tradition by pulling someone out of retirement for the first time to become the top military officer. The president would also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service,
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
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